BROADENED HORIZIN brings you discussion with your favorite Japanese and RIZIN personalities… in English!
2022 is going out in style as RIZIN Fighting Federation and Bellator MMA join forces in a large capacity for the first time since 2019.
The main card of RIZIN 40 on New Year’s Eve in Saitama, Japan features a five-on-five spectacular of each promotion’s best testing their might. Along with that, the Super Atomweight Grand Prix tournament will come to a close as the world’s best in the division is decided with an epic rematch. Episode 22 of BROADENED HORIZIN fittingly closes out the year and the lineup of guests is fully focused on champions.
Featherweight supremacy takes center stage in the RIZIN 40 co-main event when each Bellator and RIZIN titleholders, Patricio “Pitbull” Freire and Kleber Koike, collide. Established as one of the all-time best 145-pound fighters, Pitbull acknowledges he’s never faced a challenge as unique as Koike. The newly minted RIZIN kingpin is a submission artist of the highest order, earning nearly all of his 31 career victories via choke out or tap out (27).
Pitbull will get to make a dream come true by fighting in Japan. A big PRIDE Fighting Championship fan during his youth, Pitbull most recently aided his brother, Patricky, during his 2019 stint in the RIZIN Lightweight Grand Prix. Whoever wins between the Brazilian legend and the blossoming superstar, Koike, further climbs the global Featherweight ladder.
Separating the two Featherweight titlists on the show is the reigning two-division champion, Seika Izawa. “Starflower” aims to cement herself further amongst incredible historic emergences with another phenomenal overall year in MMA and take home female fighter of the year honors. To do so, she’ll once again need to get past the ever-surging South Korean, Si Woo Park.
Watch the full episode in the video embedded above or you can listen on Spotify.